Candidate profiles: Williamsville District

The Whig-Standard’s Elliot Ferguson profiles candidates for city council and mayor in the 2018 municipal election, Monday, Oct. 22.

Williamsville District

Vincent Cinanni

Vincent Cinanni got involved in this election for the most fundamental of reasons: to help create a city where his son can grow up.

In his Williamsville District, that means making sure the cost of housing doesn’t get out of control and services are close by.

“You can’t really move here with your family if there is nowhere to live,” Cinanni said, noting that the city’s rental vacancy rate is 0.7 per cent, the lowest in Ontario.

“We need more housing. We need to make sure the vacancy rate is not this low,” said Cinanni, adding that it is a city-wide issue. “I think the biggest thing is affordable housing, for low and mid income.”

Related to the supply of housing is making sure the cost for those already living in the district stays under control.

For some residents, their property taxes are higher than their mortgage payments, Cinanni said, something particularly concerning for older residents and those on fixed incomes.

“It’s getting to where some people are finding it hard to maintain their way of life,” he said.

Cinanni said people in the district are eager to see development take place along the Princess Street corridor, both as a source of housing and a commercial boost.

“I think people would love to see Princess Street finished because they were meant to have, within the new development, some shops and retail,” he said. “People are really looking for that kind of growth there so they don’t have to go far.”

Along with addressing housing issues, Cinanni said traffic, road maintenance and bike lane development are priorities for the district.

Andre Imbeault

Solving the city’s housing challenges is a key part of Williamsville District candidate Andre Imbeault’s campaign.

Imbeault, who ran for the Trillium party in June’s provincial election, said adding to the city’s growing suburbs is not a sustainable way to provide housing in the long run.

“If you are expanding west, you have all these people driving across town, adding to the traffic volume, adding to greenhouse gas emissions, putting more cars downtown, where we simply don’t have the road capacity for that additional traffic,” he said. “By putting more people downtown, you are putting more people closer to where they work, closer to where they shop, you are providing an additional tax base for the city.”

The solution, he said, is to find ways to build more housing closer to the city’s primary employers, such as Queen’s University, Kingston Health Sciences Centre and St. Lawrence College.

What form those developments take is up for discussion, he said.

“There are people for and against — people for different types of development and against other types,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we do have a housing crisis in this city and the only way to solve that is to build more units.”

Imbeault said he supports the redevelopment of Princess Street, particularly on properties that are currently vacant or underdeveloped.

“A vacant lot isn’t generating a whole lot of property tax revenue, but if you put a 10-storey apartment building there, you’ve greatly increased the tax base of that property,” he said.

In addition to finding a solution to the housing issue, Imbeault said road safety and traffic concerns are what he is hearing from many constituents.

“Everyone can agree we need traffic calming measures, but there are different ways to go about it. There’s a balancing act there,” he said.

Jim Neill

After shepherding the development of a plan to spur development along Princess Street, Williamsville District incumbent Jim Neill said he wants to be around when it is finally used.

The Williamsville corridor secondary plan is meant to promote development along the city’s main street where it passes through Williamsville.

“There are some really important things happening in Williamsville that aren’t quite finished yet,” Neill, who is seeking his fifth term on council, said. “As the chair of planning, I’d love to get some buildings actually built according to the plan that came out of lots of public input.”

The new buildings would help alleviate the city’s 0.7 per cent rental vacancy rate, as would allowing the creation of secondary suites in homes in the district.

Neill said the Williamsville plan is an example of city policy that was developed through extensive public consultation and input, something he said would be good for much of what the city does.

“We need to expand even more the idea of transparency and open government,” Neill said. “We need to do more public consultation, and I would like to see us be far more proactive in the whole area of participatory democracy.

“I think there should be an opportunity for public input on the budget process, for instance. It shouldn’t all be left up to senior staff to determine the budget. The public, because it is their tax dollars, should have an opportunity to weigh in on those decisions.

“We should be held responsible. The public shouldn’t, just once every four years for one day, have their voices heard.”

Although he voted against the Cataraqui River crossing — Neill acknowledged that the 8-5 vote was a clear decision — he said the debate leading up to it could have benefited from more public input.

He said the Kingston Environmental Advisory Forum was not able to provide comment on the project.

Along with fundamental concerns about transparency and open government, Neill said he is hearing the regular complaints from constituents.

“We are pothole politicians, and I am quite happy to be a pothole politician,” he said. “Traffic, road conditions, infrastructure issues and traffic calming, those are often the primary concerns that come up.”